Virgil Sheets

ONCOLOGIST ASSISTED SPIRITUAL INTERVENTION STUDY (OASIS): PATIENT ACCEPTABILITY AND INITIAL EVIDENCE OF EFFECTS*

Purpose: Individuals with serious illness often desire to discuss spiritual concerns with their physician, yet substantial barriers exist to doing so, including limited evidence of value. This study evaluated acceptability, impact on satisfaction with care and on quality of life (QOL) of a brief (5–7 minute) semi-structured exploration of spiritual/religious concerns. Patients and Methods: 118 consecutive patients of four oncologist-hematologists (95% recruitment; 55.1% female, 91.5% Caucasian, 81.3% Christian) with mixed diagnoses, duration (51.7% diagnosed within 2 years) and prognosis (54.2% in active treatment) were alternately assigned to receive the intervention or usual care during an office visit. Assessment occurred just prior to the visit, immediately after, and after 3 weeks. Measures included the FACT-G QOL and FACIT-Sp (Spiritual Well-Being) Scales; BSI Depression Scale; the PCAS Interpersonal and Communication scales; and ratings of acceptability. Results: Oncologists rated themselves as comfortable during the inquiry with 85% of patients. Of patients, 76% felt the inquiry was “somewhat” to “very” useful. At 3 weeks, the intervention group had greater reductions in depressive symptoms (F = 7.57, p < .01), more improvement in QOL (F = 4.04, p < .05), and an improved sense of interpersonal caring from their physician (F = 4.79, p < .05) relative to control patients. Effects on QOL remained after adjusting for other variables, including relationship to physician. Improvement on Functional Well-being was accounted for primarily by patients lower on baseline spiritual well-being (beta = .293, p < .001). Conclusions: This study supports the acceptability of a semi-structured inquiry into spiritual concerns related to coping with cancer; furthermore, the inquiry appears to have a positive impact on perception of care and well-being.

Measuring college students' motives for playing drinking games.

Students may choose to play drinking games not only for reasons related to alcohol consumption but also because of incentives related to other aspects of play (competition, fun, interpersonal dominance, etc.). College students (120 men and 167 women) completed measures of motives for playing (based on T. J. Johnson, S. Hamilton, & V. L. Sheets, 1999) and consequences of playing drinking games. Exploratory principal-components analysis identified 8 reasons for playing. Men and women differed in their endorsement of the factors. Motives for play directly predicted consequences of play independently of alcohol consumption. Specific motives predicted specific types of consequences. In multiple regression analyses, Conformity motives were negatively related to consequences and may represent a form of protective motive.

College students' self-reported reasons for playing drinking games.

Two samples of college students who engage in drinking games completed questions about their drinking behavior, a set of items concerning their reasons for playing drinking games, and various self-report measures of personality. Principal components analysis using the first sample yielded four factors: Relaxation & Disinhibition, Fun & Celebration, Conformity, and Sexual Manipulation. A similar factor structure was also obtained in the second sample. In both samples, Fun & Celebration and Sexual Manipulation reasons were most strongly predictive of frequency of play and quantity of alcohol consumed while playing. In men, Sexual Manipulation reasons for play predicted frequency of taking sexual advantage of others during play. Endorsement of Conformity and Relaxation & Disinhibition reasons were associated with high social anxiety and low assertiveness. Reasons for play predicted consumption, both in drinking-game situations and overall, even after removing variance due to general reasons for drinking. Psychometric properties of the current measure are less than ideal, but the constructs identified appear to have important implications for prevention. Assessment of self-reported reasons for drinking in specific situations may be a generally useful strategy.

Empirical Identification of Dimensions of Religiousness and Spirituality

Numerous measures of Religiousness and Spirituality (R/S) exist, but the number and type of dimensions represented by these measures remain unclear. We used exploratory and confirmatory analyses in two U.S. college-student samples to identify five dimensions of R/S: Religious/Spiritual Involvement, Search for Meaning, Religious Struggle, Quest, and Spiritual Well-Being. Over half of the measures loaded on the first factor (Religious/Spiritual Involvement). In bivariate and multivariate analyses, the factors had unique patterns of relationships with each other, with alcohol use and problems, and with measures of affect and personality. Although this study utilized a college-student sample, the factors obtained are similar to those found in studies using other samples. While R/S can be represented as a global characteristic, additional dimensions also exist and may have significance for understanding how R/S are related to health and well-being.

Sources of conflict between friends in Russia and the United States

This article examines intradyadic sources of conflict that end friendships in Russia and the United States. Based on a survey of students at comparable universities in the two countries, it was found that Russians rated most, but not all, of a series of vignettes as more likely to end a friendship than Americans. The situation most likely to end a Russian friendship was a betrayal of confidence, but keeping secrets from a friend was more likely to end American friendships. Russian participants also reported that betrayals of confidence were the most frequent source of conflict ending prior friendships. Gender differences in responses to the vignettes are also described. Several explanations for these patterns are offered, and the need for additional research on the processes of friendship development and dissolution in the two countries is noted.

Palmtop computerized reminding devices: the effectiveness of the temporal properties of warning signals

An intention requires us to carry out an action at a certain time or in an unscheduled time frame. In recent years, palmtop computerized devices with special functions have been developed that enable individuals to better remember their intentions. People record their intention in the device and are later reminded of their intention by a warning signal, such as an audible beep, that is presented along with a message about what is to be done. The present research investigated the psychological effects of the warning signals provided by palmtop reminding devices. Four experiments demonstrated that the effectiveness of an audible warning signal in the form of a signal was greatest early in the day. The interval between the signal and time to carry out the act, called here the anticipatory lag, did not significantly influence the timeliness of responses and remembering.

Passion for life Self-expansion and passionate love across the life span

It is commonly believed that passionate love diminishes over time even as companionate love may grow. According to the self-expansion model (Aron and Aron (1986) Love and the expansion of the self: Understanding attraction and satisfaction. New York, NY: Hemisphere Publishing Co/Harper & Row Publishers), this change may reflect changes in opportunities for self-expansion in the relationship. Early in relationships, as partners continuously learn new things about each other, self-expansion—which occurs through the integration of the qualities and characteristics of the partner into oneself—generates passion for one’s partner. Later, as one’s partner is completely included in the self, self-expansion opportunities diminish and less passion is generated. From this perspective, if self-expansion could be sustained, so could passionate love. Over 500 adults in a Midwestern community responded to a telephone survey about their romantic relationship. They answered questions about the length of their relationship, experiences of self-expansion within their relationship, passionate love—including both romantic and obsessive components—and companionate love. As expected, people in longer lasting relationships reported lower levels of self-expansion within their relationships. Romantic and obsessive components of passionate love showed different patterns across time in relationship, but both were positively associated with self-expansion experiences as expected by the model. Self-expansion was unrelated to companionate love. Broadly consistent with the self-expansion model, these findings highlight a need for further theoretical development to explain the specific linkages of self-expansion with different components of passion.

Psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the Belief into Action Scale

ABSTRACT The Belief into Action Scale (BIAC) is a comprehensive measure of religious involvement intended for monotheistic religious traditions. We examine the psychometric properties of an Arabic version of the BIAC for administration in Muslim populations. A convenience sample of Arabic-speaking Muslims completed an online survey including the 10-item Arabic BIAC and other psychosocial and religious measures. Psychometric properties of the BIAC were examined, including internal reliability, test–retest reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and factor analytic validity. Two hundred and eleven participants completed the BIAC (100% Muslim, average age 31.9, 54% male). The average score was 47.6 (SD = 15.7). Cronbach alpha was .80 (95% CI .76–.84) and intra-class correlation coefficient between two administrations (n = 30) was .88 (95% CI .77–.94). Convergent validity was demonstrated by high correlations between the BIAC and existing religiosity scales (r = .52–.58); divergent validity by weak correlations with psychosocial measures (.09–.21); construct validity by high correlations between individual items and total scale score (r’s .53–.72); factor analytic validity by a single factor that explained 81.8% of the scale’s variance and predictive validity by small correlations with psychosocial outcomes in expected directions. The Arabic BIAC is a reliable and valid scale for assessing religious involvement in Muslim Arabic-speaking populations.

Further examination of the factor structure of the Chapman Psychosis Proneness Scales (CPPS).

Results of recent analyses of the Chapman Psychosis Proneness Scales (CPPS) have been inconsistent with regard to their factor structure. This inconsistency has involved whether the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (SocAnh) reflects only the negative or both the negative and positive dimensions of schizotypy, along with the degree of correlation between these two dimensions. In the present study, confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare models created by Chan et al. and Kwapil et al.; a third model was constructed based on adjustments to these prior models and consideration of the schizotypy construct. Following Kwapil et al., our model allowed for bi-loading of SocAnh scale, but eliminated the correlation between positive and negative factors. Although fitness for each of the previously offered models was adequate, RMSEA and chi-square indicators suggested ideal fit for the model proposed by Kwapil and our new model, which redirects variance thought to be shared among the positive and negative dimensions to its specific source, SocAnh. The implications of these competing models with regard to our conceptualization of schizotypy are addressed. It is suggested that the cross loading of SocAnh reflects the notion of social anhedonia as the core of schizotypic personality organization.